Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Which Lens is the Best for Moon Photography?

(swipe or use scroll bars to view the entire un-cropped image)

Capturing images of the moon is not difficult. It can be done by almost "anybody" using "any" camera. For those who still need to learn and master the art of shooting the moon can search the website, or take a peek HERE.

Almost every moon photo found on the internet is cropped because "any" camera might have a lens of a focal length not "long enough" to provide sufficient magnification. How long the focal length is considered "long enough" depends on what size and resolution of the Moon images will be acceptable.


The following pictures show relative moon sizes wrt to the actual frame shot with lenses of different focal lengths in my collection.

(Note: "efl" = equivalent focal length to 35 mm full frame camera. I'm using 4-thirds system, hence the "efl" is actually 2 x  the lens focal lengths. All pictures shown here are in their original frame - no cropping.)

100mm efl  (50mm standard lens)
50mmGry_7241556

200mm efl  (100mm short telephoto lens)
100mmGry_7241559

400mm efl - (200mm medium telephoto lens)
200mmGry_7241564

800mm efl - (400mm super telephoto lens)
400mmGry_7241566

1120mm efl - using 560mm fl telescope (w/o eyepiece) prime focus on 4-thirds image sensor.
560mmGry_7241576

>6000 mm efl - afocal projection technique (telescope + diagonal + 8mm eyepiece + Lumix LX-3 @ 60mm efl)
Tele-zoo-minP1290357


Read also MOONLIGHTING